Monday, November 11, 2013

I've made some choices in order to maintain sanity in our house. Mostly right now that means I lay down on the couch for 1-1.5 hours a day to rest during family quiet time and that means that my poor neglected blog has been left alone for some time. I am 7 weeks away from baby number 4 and I am tired. This doesn't mean that I have been idle in all areas of my life. David and I have begun and even finished some of our Christmas crafting, and I've been crocheting up a storm (well, for me anyway). My David has had a nice long weekend and been so generous with our family time, so today, I got a morning nap and get to spend quiet time here with you. Here's a little update on what we've been busy making. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you may have seen a few sneak peeks.

It started with some painting. Abby will be getting a thrifted jewelry box, painted and filled with handmade jewelry. I used this jewelry box for a while, but most of my necklaces are too long for it to work all that well. It will be a great size for Abby. I should mention that my David did most of the painting. I've had so much fun crafting with my husband!

Then we painted dowels for the all three littles' dance ribbon wands. They love dancing and our church has some nice ribbon wands, but we thought custom ones would be nice for our littles. We made two identical ones for each little, one for home and one for church. I will make drawstring bags for storage and transport. We used this tutorial here.

I also whipped up two scarves. My David and I love iconic Canadiana things, but the budget doesn't always allow that kind of indulgences. For example I love the Hudson's Bay Co. signature five point blanket stripes. The blankets themselves are super expensive, but to our dismay and surprise so were their scarves. We're talking $55 for a scarf!!!! Well, after a long visit at Michael's Arts & Crafts in their yarn department, we found the colours we were happy with and I got to work. David's scarf needed to be warm and functional, not just fashionable. He's not really an accessory kind of guy, so I settled on a tighter crochet stitch (HDC) with a small hook. This meant it took quite awhile and the middle section was quite long and boring. In the end, it turned out nice and cozy. Blocking made all the difference to the final project and just in case you were on the other side of the you-can't-block-acrylic-yarn fence, I am here to tell you that you can and it makes a huge difference. I looked it up on YouTube and I'm super happy with the results. I then made a quick (read loose stitch with large hook) infinity scarf for myself. I have plenty of warm scarves and was interested in another accessory more than a-keep-me-warm-on-the-coldest-days kind of scarf. It turns out to be quite warm anyway and it's cute.

I've also picked up my afghan that I started last fall and have made some progress. No promises as to when I'll finish, but I'm enjoying where it's going and I have hope that it will finish nicer than I expected due to my new found blocking knowledge.

I am now working on Malachi's birthday present which will be a super hero doll inspired by these, but re-worked with my own pattern. He will also get a matching cape, mask and wrist cuffs. His favourite thing to do these days is to dress up as Superman. He doesn't even really know who Superman is, but it's so cute! If you want to see him in action, here's a link to a cute video.

I have other handmade Christmas presents in mind. We'll visit those another day. In the meantime, it's been nice to stop in and say "hello". I've missed this space.

Why are you angry, Mr Turtle?

We have a hand painted planter that was given to us as a wedding present. David and I dubbed it the angry turtle, because he does look angry. Yet, the funny thing is, his angry-ness makes me laugh. So, I thought I would share my laughter and joy with you here at The Angry Turtle.
Thanks for visiting and don't forget to say 'hello'.